1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the tip assembly of a liquid-applying tool (hereinafter referred to as "a liquid applying tip assembly"). More particularly, it relates to the tip assembly of a liquid applying tool in which the end of a liquid applying member protruding from a cylinder is pushed to operate a valve to cause cosmetic liquids such as manicure liquids and eye liner liquids or somewhat viscous liquids such as paints, marking solutions, character correcting solutions, or plastic model assembling adhesive to flow out of the tip assembly.
2. Background Art
Examples of the conventional liquid-applying tip assembly of this type are a bundle of fibers covered with plastic material, a bundle of fibers covered with resin, or a porous material.
In the case of the bundle of fibers covered with plastic material, the fibers are liable to become separated. This difficulty may be eliminated by using a bundle of fibers covered with resin or employing a porous material. However, in the case where cosmetic liquids containing pigment having a high specific gravity or a large grain size or being relatively high in viscosity are used intermittently for a long period, the capillary gaps are liable to become clogged with the pigment. Also, coating solutions may manifest decreased color tone, density or covering characteristics by the filtering effect when they flow from the liquid-applying tip assembly. This difficulty may be eliminated by increasing the size of the capillary gaps. However, in this case, the fibers are liable to come off, and the rigidity of the porous material is decreased. In addition, the liquid-applying tip assembly is not strong enough to apply the liquid to a given area.
On the other hand, in a conventional liquid applying tool of the type in which a valve is operated to supply coating solution from the liquid storing chamber, it is common practice to provide a porous material such as sponge in front of the valve mechanism so that the coating solution flowing through the valve is blocked and temporarily stored in the porous material and is then supplied to the liquid-applying member. The liquid-applying member is then generally made of fibers covered with resin and is relatively large in diameter (cf. FIG. 12). In the conventional liquid applying tool, the porous material used to block the flow of liquid has low elasticity, and is dimensionally unstable, thus being rather difficult to assemble. In the case where it is required to use a liquid-applying member small in diameter, it is essential that the liquid-applying member is supported along the central axis of the liquid-applying tool with high accuracy. However, this requirement cannot be satisfied by the above-described porous material, because the porous material has insufficient supported strength and poor dimensional stability.
In the case of a liquid-applying member small in diameter, especially one in which ribs are formed on the axial core in such a manner that they extend along the axis of the axial core to form liquid passage therebetween, it is difficult to apply a suitable quantity of liquid to the liquid passage to thereby stably dispense the liquid.